| "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" | |
|---|---|
| Song | |
| Published | Harms Inc. (1937) |
| Songwriters | Cliff Friend Dave Franklin |
"The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" is a song written in 1937 byCliff Friend andDave Franklin and published by Harms Inc., New York. It is best known as the theme tune for theLooney Tunes cartoon series andMerrie Melodies reissued cartoon series produced byWarner Bros. Cartoons, used from 1937 to 1969.
Popular recordings of the song included versions byShep Fields,Russ Morgan andEddy Duchin.[1]
The original version contains an introductory verse that leads up to the main part of the song, as a young man tells of his date with a young woman, in which they go to an amusement park and find time to "spark" while riding the malfunctioningcarousel. The name was a play on "breakdown" and the tune is similar to the traditional "Chinese Breakdown" as well as the children's rhyme "Miss Susie had a steamboat".
The tune first appeared in theMerrie Melodies cartoon shortSweet Sioux, released June 26, 1937.[2]
Starting with theLooney Tunes cartoon shortRover's Rival released October 9, 1937, an adapted instrumental version of the song's main tune became the staple opening and closing credits theme for theLooney Tunes series, most memorably featuringPorky Pig stuttering "Th-th-th-that's all, folks!" over the tune at each cartoon's end.[2]
A different vocal version, sung byMel Blanc (voice ofDaffy Duck), was heard inDaffy Duck and Egghead, a 1938 entry in theMerrie Melodies series at about five minutes into the cartoon. Daffy also sang a specially-modified version of the song in the 1950Looney Tunes shortBoobs in the Woods.
The tune also made appearances in theMerrie Melodies shortsJungle Jitters (1938) andAviation Vacation (1941).The Three Stooges recorded a version in 1959 for their musical albumThe Nonsense Songbook.
In 1962 a new, moredissonant, variation of the theme was arranged byWilliam Lava for use with the updated opening sequences for new one-off shorts ofLooney Tunes andMerrie Melodies shorts, starting withNow Hear This before becoming the permanent theme for all cartoons afterWarner Bros. Cartoons shut down andDepatie-Freleng Enterprises took over production. In 1967, a remix of the Lava version was used in the opening sequences of newLooney Tunes andMerrie Melodies shorts.
The song is used in the filmWho Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), an animation/live-action blend based upon the cartoons of the 1940s. "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" is performed twice in the film: first by cartoon characterRoger Rabbit (voiced byCharles Fleischer), as he's being assisted by his human partnerEddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) in hiding out fromJudge Doom's weasel henchmen[3] and later by Valiant himself in Marvin Acme's gag factory, as he's trying to force the same cartoon weasels (after they capture Roger andJessica Rabbit) to laugh themselves to death.[4] The lyrics in both sequences were written specifically for the film. Roger's version was released on the soundtrack to the film.[5]
